Art Basel: Artwork damaged at Perez Art Museum Miami event
While the city of Miami was abuzz Thursday evening with events related to Art Basel Miami Beach, the Perez Art Museum Miami, also known as PAMM, hit a snag as an artwork on display was damaged during its banner event for this year's Miami Art Week.
Sometime late Thursday evening, Gean Moreno and Ernesto Oroza's work "Drywood" -- 12 concrete spheres nestled on the floor, each with a beach towel meshed into them -- was damaged by accident, according to the museum. Attendees were free to roam amongst the orbs and no restrictive signage or railings were present around the work before the incident.
The piece was damaged during an event the museum was presenting with DJ collective Future Brown and billed as a Dis Magazine and THV Entertainment production. The private soirée was open to PAMM Sustaining level members and above, and Art Basel Miami Beach, DesignMiami/ and Art Miami VIP cardholders.
Based on observations, it was readily apparent that one of the concrete spheres broke in half while some spheres appeared to have tumbled out of place. At time of reporting, it was unclear of the exact circumstances that led to the work's damage or the total extent of the damage. Moreno, one of the collaborators on the work, was in attendance at the event and was aware the work was damaged.
The museum released the following statement to the Miami Herald: "The damage to the work of art by Gean Moreno was an accident. The artist was present at the event and PAMM has responded to remove the work for safety. We will continue to collaborate with Gean to have it repaired."
This is not the first time that PAMM has had issues concerning guests damaging works on display at the museum. Earlier this year, Miami artist Maximo Caminero smashed a vase, created by prolific Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, in an act of protest.
-- Ricardo Mor